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The New Haven Register will unveil a new platform for online story comments next week aimed at improving the tenor of conversation on the site by allowing real identities to be used, providing a better user experience for readers and providing staff with better tools to moderate and participate in the discussion.

Readers will still be able to comment anonymously, and without going through a registration process, if they wish, but the new system will also allow you to log in with your Facebook account, your Twitter, Yahoo or Google ID or by registering with the system itself.

We will be maintaining our policy of having staff screen comments before they appear on the site, but plan to reward the most responsible commenters with a “whitelist” status that will allow their comments to go up on the site immediately. To qualify for this, a reader must register with the site or use a verified ID such as Facebook and prove over time that their comments are civil and not in violation of our policies against abusive and hateful language.

The platform we’re using is called “Disqus.” It has been in use at The Register Citizen in Torrington since last summer. In the weeks following its deployment in New Haven, we’ll also be adding it to the Middletown Press and our weeklies in Connecticut.

Some key differences between Disqus and our present story commenting system include:

– The ability to use a verified identity log-in if you choose. We believe that introducing more conversation among people who are using their real names will improve the tenor of conversation among even those who continue to choose to be anonymous.

– The ability to reply to specific comments, and maintain “threaded” conversations. Right now, a story on the Register’s website might have as many as 100 comments. If you want to respond to the fifth comment in that thread, you can, but your response will show up 96 comments later. The new system allows readers to reply to specific comments and carry on a back-and-forth with others. There is also a “Like” button next to each comment, and a setting that moves “most liked” comments to the top of the thread.

– The ability to edit your comment after you’ve posted it. A frequent complaint that we have regarding our present story comment system is that there’s no way to take back something you regret saying, or more often, to correct a typo or grammar error, after you’ve hit submit, other than asking a moderator to take the comment down altogether.

– The ability to register with the new platform and create a profile – either using your own name or a pseudonym – that can be recognized by other readers. Once you establish a track record of responsible commenting, you’ll be eligible for “whitelisting” by moderators so that your comments will appear immediately on the site instead of being reviewed ahead of time by staff.

Registering is easy. This is what you’ll see if you choose “login” and “create new profile.” You can also go to Disqus.com and create a profile right now. And when the new system launches on the New Haven Register’s site next week, just log in with the user name and password that you chose.

Our new system also allows you to log in using your Facebook profile, your Twitter account, or your Google or Yahoo ID. Just click on “post as” and make your choice.

Finally, you can still choose to comment any time, as a one-time thing, by choosing “post as” guest. Like our present system, that allows you to choose a user name and plug in an email address every time you comment.

UPDATE: Our new story commenting platform is scheduled to go live on the New Haven Register website at noon Tuesday, March 20. If you have any problems or questions about it, or if you have any questions in the future about why a story comment was approved or not approved, you can email comments@nhregister.com.

How can the community be part of your journalism if you don’t even allow them to comment on what you do?

The Independent has had a pretty tightly moderated story comment system that has been praised by media critic Dan Kennedy and for several years stood in stark contrast to the New Haven Register’s “everything goes up and is policed after the fact” policy. We changed that policy in the fall and now have basically the same system as the Independent. You can still comment anonymously, but every comment is screened in advance by our staff and we have a set of rules and guidelines for those commenting and for moderators.

Paul Bass said in his explanation about shutting off comments that he’s noticed the tone getting worse, even with moderation, and was stung by a recent incident in which a nasty comment accidentally made it up on the site. (We’ve seen this kind of human error happen, too, for sure … especially with the large volume of comments we’re dealing with.) He said:

“Is this the long-awaited new dawn of democracy and accountability we thought we were helping to help spark in New Haven by launching the Independent in 2005? Or are we contributing to the reflexively cynical, hate-filled discourse that has polluted American civic life? Are we reviving the civic square? Or managing a sewer with toxic streams that demoralize anyone who dares to take part in government or citizen activism?”

In his column, Paul suggested that the Independent was taking a “break” from story comments, hinting that perhaps after regrouping they would be back with either a renewed moderation effort or a different system.

But he also suggests that maybe they shouldn’t exist at all, and that perhaps the conversation happening via social media on Independent stories has or can replace the very concept of story comments.

There are so many problems with the latter argument. What a way to speed alienation and distrust in your audience – to say that they can “go elsewhere” to react, challenge or add context to your journalism. And you’re not even saying that you’ll be joining them “over there” (and if that discussion is happening on individual Facebook pages, you won’t necessarily even have access). Because (implied) you don’t care what they have to say and don’t believe they have anything to contribute.

To me, this is the “anti-New Haven Independent” philosophy of news. It goes against so much of what has made that organization great.

(And P.S. – just because the conversation happens on social media, with verified identities, doesn’t mean it will be any less nasty. Have you followed Facebook and Twitter conversations lately?)

So I’m hoping that, indeed, this is a very short “break” that will allow Paul Bass and the New Haven Independent to come up with a better model for story comment and on-site engagement … maybe something we can learn from once again.

Shutting off comments (for good, I mean … I respect the Independent’s decision to “pause and hit the reset button”) deals with abusive commenters and a toxic environment the way that cutting your arm off would deal with a skin rash.

The ability to comment is at step one in building a relationship of trust and collaboration with our audience. Preventing the jerks from pissing all over that platform is step two. We’re not there yet, but building a better sense of community (which must involve injection of more real identity commenting, but doesn’t necessarily have to preclude anonymous) and constant and quality engagement in story comments by our reporters and editors should follow.

East Haven Mayor Joseph Maturo, Jr., apologizes in his office at East Haven Town Hall January 25 for his statement concerning tacos from the previous day. Photo by Arnold Gold/New Haven Register

So much has been written about racial profiling in East Haven and the problems with the police department and mayor that I thought it would be a good idea to link to key articles and columns from the past month.

But first, the story from the New Haven Independent that started it all. Paul Bass and team have not gotten enough credit from us for breaking the news of the video that showed East Haven police lied about their arrest of Father James Manship.

“While the federal investigation that resulted in the arrest of four police officers last week centers on alleged police profiling and harassment of Latinos, investigators have asked questions about officials in other ends of government — including Mayor Joseph Maturo Jr.’s office.”

“Mayor Joseph Maturo told an 11 a.m. Town Hall press conference packed with local, regional and national media that the decision, which Gallo informed him of on Friday, was ‘a selfless act designed to assist in the healing process’ with the Latino community, some of whom East Haven police are accused of mistreating.”

“East Haven Police Chief Leonard Gallo’s retirement launches a new chapter in the saga of a New Haven exile as well as of a white-majority town’s resistance to change, infused with echoes of mid-20th century standoffs between southern communities and the federal government. The news also brought smiles to Guti’z Bakery.”

“Maturo said he will put together a search committee for a new chief, which will begin its work immediately. The new chief will have to “restructure the department, implement reforms and work with the community,” he said. He named deputy chief John Mannion to head the department on an interim basis.”

“‘The poison begins at the top more often than not when leaders of these towns take after immigrants,’ said Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate crimes nationwide. With census figures predicting that non-Latino whites will lose their majority in the United States by 2050, Potok said there was an ‘enormous level of rage and resentment’ in some towns with fast-growing immigrant communities, such as East Haven.”

“Chief Gallo ‘cultivated a racist and dishonest police force,’ said the Rev. James Manship, a priest at St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church, whose efforts to document police behavior helped prompt the federal investigation. Father Manship called for the local prosecutor, Michael Dearington, to review the convictions of people who had been arrested by the four indicted officers, and to seek to vacate those convictions that were ‘tainted by racial bias or other unconstitutional conduct.'”

“This history of abuse and marginalization will not be remedied by after-the-fact apologies or a public relations campaign. It is actions – not words – that need to change in East Haven. Gallo’s resignation was necessary, but it is not enough. The allegations documented in the criminal indictments, the civil rights lawsuit that Father Manship and Latino residents have filed, and the Department of Justice report make it abundantly clear: nothing short of a top-to-bottom overhaul can fix the East Haven Police Department.”

“Maturo said he already had taken some steps to address the town’s problems, including forming a new committee, the Law Enforcement Advisory Resource Network, to address criticism and usher in change at the Police Department, and would be reaching out to East Haven’s Latino community “soon,” although he did not say when or how.”

“… the Rev. James Manship, the pastor of St. Rose of Lima Church in New Haven who was arrested by East Haven officers a few years ago while trying to document alleged incidents of profiling of Latinos, says, ‘The mayor’s inability to recognize there’s a problem continues to be an obstacle to moving forward on this.'”

“Part of the way Italians, Irish and other Europeans would deal with the bias against newcomers was to “define themselves as white … to find common cause against African Americans and Latinos.” … The lack of a path to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented people in the country also further isolates this group.”

“It’s time to go. Take the police chief with you, and reintroduce yourself to the (changed) town you grew up in. Start with Guti’z Bakery. The bakery is owned by a family from Ecuador. They don’t serve tacos, but the empanadas will melt in your mouth.”

“When Len Gallo became the chief of the East Haven police in the summer of 1998, the department was in trouble over race relations and the embattled mayor was Joe Maturo. Sound familiar? Fourteen years later, he is at the center of a federal probe into civil rights abuses and his tenure has proved a source of bafflement even to people who are generally supportive of police. Gallo is the unnamed co-conspirator in last week’s federal indictment of four officers, his lawyer has acknowledged.”

“Whether he’s racist, arrogant, ignorant, stupid, or all of the above, Joseph Maturo Jr. should not be overseeing a department that carries guns and has the power to arrest and detain people who live in or travel through East Haven. And he has proven by his words and actions so far that he is not capable of overseeing reform of that department.”

“East Haven’s secret weapon in the battle for public opinion and to restore the town’s good name — the nationally-celebrated “Cupcake Wars” champion Sugar Bakery & Sweet Shoppe — launched the sweetest sort of counter-offensive today. … Through the generosity of an anonymous donor, it will donate 500 cupcakes in the community’s name to a Greater New Haven charitable organization that benefits children.”

“Down four more officers as of Tuesday’s arrests, the Police Department is continuing to cover its shifts, but individual officers — who have complained for months that morale has never been lower — are worn out, sources say. Board of Police Commissioners Chairman Fred Brow and others have said that more arrests are likely — with some estimates, however speculative, ranging as high as 15 possible arrests.”

“Mayor Maturo should now resign. He has shown a stunning incapacity for understanding the severity of the scandal in his government and has been fatally compromised by his knee-jerk support for the tainted police department and its chief. The mayor’s repugnant remark is the least of it. This case is about institutional brutality and oppression.”

“An extra, extra large order of tacos arrived at Town Hall Thursday afternoon for an absent Mayor Joseph Maturo Jr., but soon was taken to an area soup kitchen as a donation. Reform Immigration for America, an advocacy group, sent about 500 tacos in disposable foil trays to protest Maturo’s now infamous “taco” comment.”

“‘Hopefully you know now that your comments have only heightened the racial tensions and help to explain how the kind of racial intolerance uncovered by the United States Department of Justice was allowed to take hold of the East Havenpolice department,’ said Latrina Kelly of Junta For Progressive Action. They read statements in English and Spanish.”

“Zullo has been charged with five counts of excessive force and one count of conspiracy against rights. He was arrested Tuesday morning with union President Sgt. John Miller and Officers Dennis Spaulding and David Cari following a lengthy federal investigation into allegations of profiling and using excessive force against Latinos, as well as making false arrests. All four now are on administrative leave from the Police Department, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Krishna Patel.”

“The comment furthers a stereotype, some said, that associates all Spanish-speaking people with tacos. Some residents called Maturo’s words ‘inappropriate,’ but a couple of others felt too much is being made of the response.”

“For more than a decade they have been joined at the hip, the police chief with an old-school, tough-guy reputation and the mayor who resurrected the officer’s flagging career, made him his chief and then stood by him at every turn.”

“Rushing to condemn East Haven Mayor Joseph Maturo Jr. for political incorrectness or insensitivity, his critics have let him get away with a real offense: his complicity in the perjury committed by his town’s police officers.”

“Hate to break this to you, Mr. Mayor, but we reporters don’t to need to twist it or turn it at all to make you sound like a low-IQ bigot. Your words speak for themselves without any editing whatsoever. Let’s just roll the tape.”

“The Latino population of greater New Haven, East Haven included, is very diverse, with representatives from 18 countries of Central and South America and the Caribbean, as well as Puerto Rico. Latinos are diverse in their immigration status (from the undocumented to the third-generation American), in their levels of education, professions, families — just the way every other hyphenated-American group is. And they don’t all eat tacos.”

“Let’s not mince words. The thin translation of Maturo’s taco comment is, ‘I am a full human being and you are less than one.’ If you don’t look like me, if I don’t understand the language you speak; if your customs are not my customs, you are not a member of this community. THAT is what Maturo was saying.”

“Certainly, things are far worse than Maturo’s flippantly distasteful ‘I might have tacos’ comment to a reporterwho had asked what he was doing for the Latino community. One Ecuadorean business owner told me of routine harassment of customers who are afraid to leave their homes because of local police.”

“Mr. Maturo doesn’t speak for Italian Americans, most East Haven residents or state residents, but he managed to embarrass all of us. His pathetic attempt at an apology doesn’t wash. He ought to resign.”

“How can things get better with Maturo saying, ‘I don’t believe we racially profile?’ How can things get better, if he minimizes the alleged misconduct by contending that there is a ‘very small segment of Latinos in town,’ or by expressing his concern about their treatment with the quip, ‘I might have a taco when I go home tonight?'”

“First Lennie Gallo, an aspiring New Haven top cop, was exiled to the animal shelter when his boss said he couldn’t be trusted with humans. He reemerged as next-door East Haven’s chief—and now the center of a federal probe into alleged evidence-tampering that goes beyond harassing Latinos.”

“What happened in East Haven, where Sgt. John MIller and officers Dennis Spaulding, David Cari and Jason Zullo were arrested Tuesday in pre-dawn FBI raids,’is not an anomaly,’ said Hartford City Councilman Louis Cotto, citing historic fears that many of his Hartford constituents have of driving through parts of Avon, Glastonbury and Manchester.”

“My sincerest apologies go out to the East Haven community and, in particular, the Latino community for the insensitive and off-collar comment that I made to WPIX reporter Mario Diaz yesterday regarding the recent events affecting our community and our police department. Unfortunately, I let the stress of the situation get the best of me and inflamed what is already a serious and unfortunate situation. I regret my insensitive comment and realize that it is my job to lead by example.”

“The history of East Haven leadership be it from the Mayor’s office or those they have hired to suppress the rights of minorities goes back decades with the Greater New Haven Branch of the NAACP. The most egregious case being the loss of life of Malik Jones in 1997 where a federal grand jury ultimately found the town of East Haven and their Police Department guilty of his wrongful death. Indeed over the last few decades there is no town that we have had more issues with relative to racial profiling, the lack of minorities in any civil service and in any leadership positions.”

“’They represent either a horrible lack of judgment or worse, an underlying insensitivity to our Latino community that is unacceptable. Being tired is no excuse,’ said Gov. Dannell Malloy. ‘He owes an apology to the community, and more importantly, he needs to show what he’s going to do to repair the damage he’s done. And he needs to do it today.'”

“Mayor Joseph Maturo Jr. was caught on camera Tuesday in what he called a “gotcha moment” when a New York TV reporter asked him what he was doing for Latinos Tuesday night. ‘I might have tacos when I go home. I’m not quite sure yet,’ Maturo told the WPIX reporter.”

“The FBI arrested four police officers just before dawn Tuesday morning, alleging a conspiracy that one official called ‘a cancerous cadre’ of ‘bullies with badges’ to deprive some residents, particularly Latinos, of their constitutional rights.”

“They were known as ‘Miller’s boys,’ a small group of East Havenofficers on the 4-to-midnight shift arrested Tuesday following a long federal investigation and charged with terrorizing Latinos who dared enter the town’s borders.”

“They stopped and detained people, particularly immigrants, without reason, federal prosecutors said, sometimes slapping, hitting or kicking them when they were handcuffed, and once smashing a man’s head into a wall. They followed and arrested residents, including a local priest, who tried to document their behavior. They rooted through stores looking for damning security videotapes of how they had treated some of their targets, described by one of them on a police radio as having ‘drifted to this country on rafts made of chicken wings.'”

“During the proceedings, Patel also announced that prosecutors learned a new message was found on a union bulletin board at the Police Department Tuesday that was similar to other allegedly threatening messages and cartoons that had previously been posted and are detailed in the indictment. According to Patel, the message said ‘not to speak and to be a team player.’ She added that Miller, as union president, is the only person with a key to change the board.”

“The federal indictment alleges a conspiracy from 2007 through 2011 ‘to injure, oppress, threaten and intimidate,’ but it was the video moment with Manship — sparking an arrest that was later dismissed in court — when simmering social pressures reached a boiling point that continued to spill over and singe the town’s reputation.”

“The manual’s section on ‘policewomen’ says female officers ‘shall patrol public places and streets and inspect all places of commercial recreation, including dance halls, skating rinks, theaters and all other places that may be frequented by women and girls…’ It adds that ‘a Policewoman shall not engage in work for or with any male member of the Department except when directed to do so by a superior officer or when the emergencies of police business so require.'”

“The self-proclaimed ‘French-Canadian, kind of Yankee Catholic’ pastor of St. Rose of Lima Church in New Havenhas stuck his collar out more than once for his overwhelmingly Latino congregation, which includes many undocumented immigrants.”

“Dealing with immigration law is primarily a federal issue, but over the past 10 years local police departments have issued 14 tickets under an obscure state statute that prohibits businesses from employing someone who is in the country illegally. Half of those citations have been issued in East Haven, almost all of them by two officers currently under a federal investigation probing charges of racial discrimination within the department.”

“As three federal judges weighed the death of Malik Jones at the hands of an East Haven cop, they zeroed in on the significance of shots fired at another young black man, six years earlier, by the same cop.”

“East Haven was one of the towns that ignored the law until the Justice Department’s civil rights investigation began in 2009. The federal analysis of two years of East Haven traffic stops found that 19.9 percent of those stopped were Hispanics, although only 11.1 percent of drivers in the town and adjoining census tracts are Hispanic.”

“A third East Haven police officer would be dropped from the pending federal civil rights lawsuit accusing 12 East Haven police officers of mistreating Latinos, and claims relating to a defendant who now wants to withdraw from the case would be dropped against a fourth officer, according to a recently-filed court document.”

“’The situation in East Haven could have been addressed more easily and with less effort on behalf of the (U.S.) Justice Department with proper collection and disclosure of motorist data by Connecticut law enforcement agencies,’ said state Rep. Kelvin Roldan, D-Hartford.”

“Only 27 police departments consistently file annual reports required by state law to show whether minorities are targeted in traffic stops — not that it would matter if more departments complied. No one has analyzed the limited data that is filed since 2001.”

“Maturo formed the Law Enforcement Advisory Resource Network last week to guide the department in following recommendations in the Police Executive Research Forum’s report and those made by the Department of Justice. The DOJ recently said members of the department have engaged in racial profiling and mistreatment of Latinos and issued a list of changes it deems necessary for the force.”

“Five years ago, when an increasing number of teens at St. Rose’s Church wanted to go to college, but feared their undocumented status and lack of financial resources made that impossible, they turned to the Rev. James Manship for help.”

We’re pleased this morning to kick off a new partnership with the Connecticut Health Investigation Team, led by two Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporters with decades of experience covering the state.

Their work will appear in the New Haven Register, Middletown Press and Register Citizen in both our online and print editions. And we’re off to a great start … a database-driven story this morning about how hundreds of criminal arrests are made in Connecticut schools each year, including of young children and for offenses that used to just mean detention, such as giving a classmate a “wedgie.”

Director Lynne DeLucia, a former assistant managing editor at the Hartford Courant, and lead writer Lisa Chedekel, a former Courant reporter, (both are also alums of the New Haven Register) have hit upon a reporting niche in the state that was vastly under-served and are owning it.

Like the Independent, the C-HIT project is grant-funded, and the goal is for their reporting to have the biggest impact possible, which means being seen by the biggest audience possible. That means we are paying an extremely affordable rate – a tiny fraction of the cost of adding two health care-focused investigative reporters to our staff – to publish its work. But C-HIT gains more exposure, as well as some funding that supplements grant money.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this post misspelled Lynne DeLucia’s first name. It’s “Lynne,” not “Lynn.”

Matt DeRienzo is group editor of Digital First Media's publications in Connecticut, including the New Haven Register, Middletown Press, The Register Citizen of Torrington and non-daily publications including Connecticut Magazine, the Litchfield County Times and West Hartford News. Contact him at mderienzo@21st-centurymedia.com.